A Slight Inclination
by ICantThinkofanOriginalName
Summary: Just because a Ruff is tough doesn't mean he has to be tough on a Puff. Not a love story, but a like story; a slight inclination, if you will. One-shot. Mixed pairings. Rated T for language.


**_Rated T for language._**

* * *

Damn, he felt good.

A perfect, stormy day - thunder is just so...inspiring, ain't it? Been flyin' around in the clouds, hoping to find a nice bit of lighting. Stole his favorite burger - and it hadn't even reached the person who ordered it yet. Having a great hair day, as usual - flew around the city ten times just to get the spikes just right. Punched Brick in the face and got away before the ginger could get him back. Just gotta hide out for another hour or two 'til Big Red calms down, then he could go home and kick ass at video games - again.

Hold up, is that Pinky Puff down there? Oh, would ya look at that? It's like the world just wants him to have a great day. Blossom was just strollin' along and staring at her phone, completely unaware of the threat above her. Sure, he felt a little guilty about wanting to fight her, considering that he always thought she was the least annoying of the sisters, and the fight probably wasn't going to be as fun as it would be with Buttercup, but a Puff's a Puff. Can't complain when he's got one sittin' right in front of him. And ya know what? He thought he just might pay her a little visit.

He was shaking with anticipation, and the muscles around his left eye were beginning to jump around. _Whoa there, Butchie boy, calm down_ , he thought. _You're spazzin' out already, and ain't nothing's even happened yet. Get it together, can't have a Puff makin' fun of your twitch. Again._

He breathed deeply and fought down his shakiness. _There ya go. Now you're an intimidating lil' fucker, and ain't no Puff gonna bring you down._

Butch angled himself towards the Powerpuff leader, and set off on a collision course. Ten seconds to impact. Five, four, three, two - _wham_! Haha, knocked her flat on her ass. _Take that ya silly lil'..._

Here it comes - he loves it when the Puffs yell. "What the heck was that for?!" Nice. This one doesn't screech like Buttercup usually does. No wonder Brick talks more in a fight than he does. Pinky's got a pretty lil' voice. And look at that face. Damn she looks pissed. He loves it when the Puffs look pissed. Look at her, her face is gettin' all red and her little lips are quiverin' and something shiny began to slip down her face...wait.

Aw, hell no.

Nope.

NOPE.

Butch don't do tears.

Stupid girls and their stupid feelings. Seriously, they don't see him crying every time someone knocks him over.

"Suck it up, I didn't hit ya that hard," he told her as she stood up and wiped the offensive tears away. _Smack_. Ouch, really? Is a slap the best she can do? "Damn, girl, ain't no need to play around like that."

"Shut up, I'm not in the mood." Aw great, and now she's sniffling. She looks like a sad bunny, the way her nose was wrinkling. Geez, what a buzzkill.

"C'mon, fight me like ya mean it. I'm havin' a great day and your sissy crying is bringin' me down. Get it together." More tears. Now this is just getting awkward. He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Was there some way he could get out of this now? Maybe he oughta just fly away and try again later.

"I mean it, I'm not in the mood. Just get out of here, Butch."

"You get out, I was here first!" No he wasn't. Aw, shit, he just had to say somethin' stupid, didn't he?

"What, no you...whatever. Just leave me alone."

"What's the matter, you on your period? Out of ice cream? Did your boyfriend break up with you?" _Smack_. Damn, this girl slaps hard. His face ain't gonna feel right for a week. And now she's just flying away? Rude.

"Was it something I said," he called after her. She just ignored him. What crawled up her butt? It had to have been bad if it made a Puff cry like that. Whatever did it must be pure evil. He hoped he could find it so it can teach him its ways.

Hang on, is that her phone? She musta dropped it when he hit her. Guess it's his now. Oh, this is just too good.

Locked. Dammit. What happened to the good ol' days when people could just flip open a phone and go through everything on it without having to deal with this crap? Guess some people just have trust issues.

Maybe Mojo could unlock it. At that thought, Butch sprung into the air and shot off towards the volcano. He stopped just in front of the door and hesitated before going in. Brick was still probably pissed, and he really didn't want to deal with that at the moment. It would really put a damper on his mood. Better go in through a window instead.

Or make a hole in the wall. That's cool too.

"Yo, Monkey Brain," Butch called out into the lab. Mojo shuffled out from behind a laser, mumbling curses as he approached the fresh wreckage.

"Look what you did! I, Moooojooo Jojo, just fixed the last hole you made when you flew into the kitchen through the wall, thus making a hole that I, Mojo Jojo, had to fix!"

Butch let out a snort of laughter at the memory. "Hey, you made us. That's your problem. Unlock this phone for me, will ya?" He tossed it in the air towards the monkey, who caught it right before it hit the ground. Mojo glared at the brunet before turning his attention to the device and beginning to mumble to himself once more.

"Sorry Mo', didn't quite catch that. You know we can hear you when you do that, right?" With a growl, Mojo shoved the now-unlocked phone into his son's hands and told him to get out. Butch gave him a sarcastic "thanks" before sauntering out of the lab and towards his own room.

He flung himself on his bed, which slid a few inches and slammed into a wall as he hit it. Oh, darn, another hole in the wall. It was amazing the building was still standing. With a wicked smile and a wild cackle, Butch settled himself on his stomach and stared down at the phone. What to do, what to do? Ah, yes. Go through the pictures first, of course.

Ugh, there were so many. Stupid. Ugly. Girly. Disgusting. What's with girls and pictures, anyways? Are they really not able to remember what they look like? Oh look, there's one of her and her sisters. Uh-oh, now it's deleted. Oops. They looked stupid anyways. He was doing her a favor. As a matter of fact, there seem to be a lot of useless photos on here. Butch took care of that. Now she had a lot of free space to fill with new pointless pictures.

You know what? He ought to take it a step further and replace all the photos for her.

There. About a hundred bursts later, the device was filled with Butch's face from various angles. Just for good measure, he set it as her background and lock screen. Again, just doing her a favor. She should count herself lucky to have such a handsome devil featured on her phone.

And now for the messages! Let's see, who has she been talking to? Robin Snyder? Butch scrolled briefly through their conversation. Just lame girly crap. Someone had been 'mean' to Blossom, and she went and blabbed to her friend about it. Tch. Girls.

Dexter McPherson? Ugh, just stupid science stuff. What a nerd. Haha, he was a poindexter. Get it? Poin- _Dexter_? Butch smiled at his own joke. Who said he wasn't witty?

Mitch Mitchelson? Sounds like a dork, too. What is he, her dorky boyfriend? Lame. Again, Butch opened the conversation and began to read.

Oh.

Huh.

Guess he's not her boyfriend.

It didn't look like he was even her friend. In fact, everything he sent was just downright...mean. Just message after message of insults and crappy comments about her. Something about reading them made Butch a little queasy. Seriously, even he wouldn't say things like that. _What a douche-canoe,_ he thought.

What kind of person bullies a Puff? And it was the pink one, too. Buttercup he wouldn't have cared about, and the blue twerp got on his nerves, but the pink one usually wasn't all that annoying. He had seen her outside of fights a couple of times, and she really didn't seem all that bad. Nowhere near as cool as he was, of course, but altogether pretty alright.

Besides, the Ruffs were supposed to be the baddest of asses in town. Only they could mess with the Puffs and get away with it. Anyone else trying...well, quite frankly, it pissed him off just a little bit. And he hated being pissed off. Dammit, this prick just ruined his good mood.

At least when Butch tried to fight her, it was face to face and out in the open, not behind a stupid screen like a stupid sissy wimp. And there were dozens of those messages! It looked like Blossom hadn't even bothered to reply. Guess she was too nice to put up a fight. Or too upset. Tch. What an ass. No wonder she was crying earlier. He oughta teach this jerk a lesson. Nobody but a Rowdyuff is allowed to make the only decent Puff cry.

Before he really realized what he was doing, Butch slid off the bed and slammed his bedroom door open. He stomped his way down the halls and through the living room until he reached the front door. Somewhere behind him Brick was yelling, "Butch, ya little asswipe, get back here! I ain't done with you yet!" Guess Big Red was still mad at him. Whatever. Brick could get over himself. He ignored his brother's ranting and shoved his way through the door - possibly breaking it, but who cares? - before setting off into the overcast skies.

At first he wasn't entirely sure where he was going, but eventually he found himself approaching Pokey Oaks High School. Something in his gut told him that this kid went to school with the Powerpuff's, and he might be able to find out where the punk lived if he dug through their records.

There was a gaggle of teenagers walking away from the football field behind the school as Butch approached. He sighed in annoyance. Even from a good bit away he could hear Buttercup's voice poking out from the mix. She was playfully shoving a guy away from her, and, as he came closer, Butch could hear her saying, "Shut up. I freaking kicked your butt back there Mitchelson, and you know it."

Ah. Looks like he had lucked out. There was the crapwad himself. Butch shook his head and cracked his knuckles. The muscles in his face began their spastic twitching again, but he didn't bother to check it this time. He tensed, readied himself, and sprang forward, grabbing the guy by the arms and dragging him up into the air. The two flew off towards downtown. Buttercup had taken off after them and was hot on his heels, so he stopped abruptly and let her slam into a building. He smiled briefly at the place where she crashed and yelled, "Catch ya later, Buttercrap," before picking up speed once more.

He angled himself closer to the ground and let the idiot's feet bump the pavement a few time. Then, as the park appeared beneath them, he dropped him altogether. Butch smiled in satisfaction when he heard the thud. He landed on the ground a few feet away and turned back to see the damage. Darn. It seemed nothing was broken, and the dude was already picking himself up. He oughta do somethin' about that.

Butch stomped over and grabbed Mitch by the collar, slamming him against a nearby tree.

"Listen up craptard. I saw what you sent to the pink puff. Betcha think you're so high an' mighty, throwin' shade at a Powderpuff like that. Well, ya ain't. See, in this town, the only ones that can mess with the Puffs are me and my bros. Sometimes we might let other people have a go at them, but only we can really screw them over like that. Besides, Pinky Puff is the only one actually worth a shit, and she's the one ya go mouthin' off to? And she was too nice to fight back, wasn't she? Does lil' Buttercup know that you're tormenting her sister, or are you not man enough to tell her? I don't think she does, 'cause she probably would have kicked your ass already. I saw the two of ya, actin' all chummy and shit. If she had known, your ass would have been beat down, wouldn't it? Well, what if I tell her 'bout it, huh? Betcha you would just looove that, right?"

"Butch, put him down!" A rather familiar voice cut through his monologue, and he turned to see the pink and blue Powerpuffs themselves approaching him. Butch rolled his eyes and dropped Mitch, who landed heavily on the ground and clutched at his throat. Psh. What a drama queen.

"What the heck do you think you're doing, attacking a civilian like that," Blossom yelled as she and her sister approached.

"Well, ya see, I found a lil' somethin' of yours." Butch pulled out her phone and waved it around to show it off. "And I thought, 'why not give it a looksie', and I found somethin' I didn't really like, so I tracked him down to let 'im know what a lil' shit he is." He tossed the phone towards her, and, more as a reflex than anything else, her hand shot out to catch it. The corner of her mouth twitched, as though she were fighting back a small smile. Bubbles was looking back and forth between the phone and Butch.

"Umm, Blossom, what is he talking about? Why is he mad at Mitch," the blonde asked. Blossom shook her head in response and mumbled, "Nothing," to her sister. She looked at Butch, and he could see her eyebrows crease and her forehead wrinkle slightly. Aw, cute. She was confused. He loves it when the Puffs get confused.

"Look, Butch, I don't know what your reasoning is, but you can't just go throwing people around. You could have seriously hurt him!" Was Blossom really yelling at him? Did she not see what he had just done for her? Tch, some people are just so unappreciative.

He let out a snort. "Yeah, sure. I _totally_ care about what happens to him. 'Sides, he deserves it, the way he was talkin' shit."

"It doesn't matter how you feel! He's had a pretty hard life as it is, and it's not fair for you to do that to him. He's weaker than you are!"

"Alright, Pinky Pie. Alright. Ya know, you really should be thankin' me. But it's fine. If it's whatcha want, then I'll leave him alone for now. But if this fuckwad tries to screw around like that again, just let me know, 'kay? I'll take care of it real quick." With a wink in Blossom's direction, he set off back into the skies, the clouds quickly obscuring him from the view of the girls below.

As he flew away, he thought about the idiot he left lying in the park. Shame he hadn't been able to finish him off the way he had wanted to. Still preoccupied with his thoughts by the time he returned home, Butch crashed in through his window instead of going through a door. Oh well. He had already broken the house three times that day, why not go for a fourth?

As he settled down on his bed once more, his thoughts turned to the way a certain pair of lil' pink eyes had looked at him in confusion. He chuckled to himself. He had to admit it, Pinky was halfway decent. She even tried to stand up for the freak that made her cry. Then again, she hadn't tried all that hard to stop Butch from flying away. Maybe she appreciated his services after all. Butch chuckled to himself. He hated to say it, but she was beginning to grow on him a bit.

There it was. His good mood had come back. Is this what it was like to play the hero? It wasn't half bad. No wonder the Puffs like it so much. He felt rather satisfied with himself, like he had accomplished something. He oughta give it another go sometime. Maybe he could get Pinky to show him how it was done. Butch stopped himself and shook the thought away. Nah, he like breaking things too much for that, and she was still and a Puff. But still, there were possibilities...

Whatever, that was besides the point. He'd think about it some other time. All that mattered to him at the moment was how he was feeling. And ya know what?

Damn, he felt good.

* * *

 _Hey guys! I have decided to declare this week as "Update Week," a week in which I, well, update everything. Guess you'll be seeing me an awful lot in the next couple of days. Sorry if that bothers you. I just happen to have a *mostly* free week, and I want to take advantage of that. But before that begins, I just wanted to release this little one-shot out into the world. I know it's not very long, but there's quite a story behind it._

 _I've been musing about this little drabble for a couple of weeks now. It was inspired by part of a comment that This is the Real Deal left on Ice and Fire about a month ago: "wouldn't it be cool if we talked about mixed pairings by combining the colours? Like Yellow for Blossom and Butch, or Teal for Boomer and Buttercup or something." It really got me thinking about the mixed pairings. I started exploring the archive, and I was a little disappointed. Most of what I found in the way of mixed pairings were little one-shots and incomplete stories. And even these were few and far between. It made me a little bit sad._

 _As many of you know, I tried a story with the same pairing as this one a little while ago. Needless to say, it did not go well. It was the first story I had ever written, and it was a **travesty**. There was a lot that was wrong with it, and a lot that I had to learn from with it. The characterization, the plot, the length. Just...ew. In the end I was really disappointed with the story. However, that was purely because of error on my part, not the pairing. I actually really like the pairing, and I've been considering giving them another chance for quite some time. _

_I know that there are a lot of people who don't like mixed pairings for a number of reasons, and that's okay. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions. But some people are borderline abusive about what they say in regards to the pairings, and don't really seem to give them a chance. That's really what's been holding me back from giving them another shot. But you know what? I decided that I just don't care what other people think. I ship the mixed pairings, and gosh darn it, they're going to get the attention that I think they deserve._

 _I just feel like there is a lot of room for creativity with these pairings. With original pairings there is an awful lot of "they were made for each other" and "they were so similar" and things like that, but with a mixed pairing you have two completely different people who react differently and clash and likely don't fully understand each other. There is no cookie cutter situation that they fit into._

 _So here we arrive at the point I'm trying to make. Sorry that this note is so ramble-y, but if you happen to still be reading this, I just have one request:_

 ** _Please give the mixed pairings a shot._**

 _There are soooooo many creative and talented people within this fandom, and it would be beyond fascinating to see what they could come up with. If you're in between stories or have a little bit of time on your hands, give it a shot. And if you're reading a story with such a pairing, please keep an open mind. Just because they may not be your OTP and are kind of out of the ordinary doesn't mean they aren't wonderful._

 _Special shout out to This is the Real Deal for helping me come to terms with my secret mixed pairings obsession. You are the reason why I'm embracing the 'yellows,' and thank you so much for suggesting that the colors be mixed along with the pairings. It's a wonderful idea, and could only come from someone as creative as you. By the way, if any of you haven't already done so, check out This is the Real Deal's story "Princess Versus The Great Divide." It is amazing, to say the least, and the plot is wonderfully unique. _

_Sorry that I talked for so long. I just felt like it needed to be said. Thank you so much for giving this a chance and sticking it out until the end. Until next time._

 _-ICantThinkofanOriginalName-_


End file.
